Friday, June 20, 2014

The True Benefits of a Clothes Line


The recent heat has encouraged us to hang more of our laundry outside on the clothes line.  I've found that there are benefits to drying clothes outside, that go beyond having super scratchy "exfoliating towels" and moral dilemmas about whether or not it's wrong to put the side of the sheet with bird poop on it on Brandon's side of the bed without at least telling him it's there.  He's better off not knowing, right? 

The benefit of a clothes line that most people present is energy conservation.  Good point.  And there's also the benefit of not making my bathroom hot when the dryer is on.  Since my dryer is particularly inefficient, and takes several cycles to dry a big load, clothes actually dry faster on the line on a good hot day, which means I don't hit a bottleneck caused by my terrible dryer.   All good things, for sure, but these are not the true benefits of the clothes line that I have come to appreciate.  


The best thing about the clothes line is that by the time I have finished hanging the first load, I'm terribly hot despite having enjoyed about half of the home brew beer that I brought with me.  Cheers, chickens!  Since I'm hot, and I still have half a beer, it's only logical that I get in the swimming pool to cool off and finish my beverage.  By the time the beer is gone, and I am refreshed, I've noticed over the rim of the pool that I really should pick the ripe sweet peas, or lettuce, or weed something.  There is always some pleasant garden chore. I need to drip dry anyway, so I putter around in the garden in my bathing suit and then realize that I'm thirsty again, and hey, the laundry is already dry.  I might as well hang another load, and grab a tasty beverage while I'm at it.   Of course, this means I'll need to get in the pool to cool off after, and the cycle begins again.  It's perfect.  By the end of the day, I can honestly claim that I spent the entire day catching up with laundry!   

It must be the season for clothes line consideration, because on of my favorite authors/bloggers, Gene Logsden, had clothes lines on his mind too.  Click here to read his post.  It doesn't sound like he has mastered the swimming pool technique, but his shady porch sounds pretty good too.     

2 comments:

Betty said...

Saw your post on the Gene Logsdon site and read your clothesline blog--I love your work/play ethic!! Now I've gone back to read your blogs from the beginning and am really enjoying them! Thanks, Betty

rain said...

Hello, Betty. Thanks for stopping by and for leaving a comment. I was excited to see that you are a real bee keeper, and from one of my favorite states, too. Reading your blog makes me crave honey!

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